Kirk, Ayotte Press Pentagon on ANHAM's Alleged Iran Violations

Published: October 27th, 2013

Two Republicans in the U.S. Senate asked the Pentagon whether it planned any action against a contractor that shipped supplies to an American airbase in Afghanistan through Iran.

The Oct. 22 letter from Sens. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) to the Defense Department’s inspector general focuses on Anham FZCO, a logistics contractor based in the United Arab Emirates with offices in the Washington area.

Last month, Anham revealed to U.S. agencies that construction supplies headed for Bagram, the U.S. military airfield in Afghanistan, had been shipped through Iran.

In reporting the violation of U.S. sanctions policies, the company said its senior executives had been unaware of the Iran leg of the transport, which took place in the first half of 2012.

However, a series of emails first reported last month by Defense News and reviewed this week by JTA show that Fadi Nahas, the company’s program manager since 2007, was aware of the shipments.

“Anham executives allegedly knew of their subsidiaries’ activities in Iran long before the company voluntarily informed the Departments of Defense, Commerce and the Treasury of such violations in September 2013,” said the letter to Jon Rymer, the Defense Department’s inspector general. “These same executives were also allegedly aware of such activities prior to signing a major support Defense Department contract in June 2012.”

The senators asked Rymer if contracts with Anham may be voided and if the Defense Department officials is considering action against Anham.

The emails underscore the difficulties of transporting goods in and out of Afghanistan, and also the lengths those moving these materials go to obscure the Iran leg of the journey.

Nahas at one point in the emails writes of “slush funds;” a former Anham official told JTA these were bribes designated for officials who could hinder the transport.

Anham and the Defense Department did not respond to requests for comment.

 Media Sources: 

http://thoughtfulwomen.org/2013/09/26/pentagon-contractor-uses-iran-project/

http://www.jta.org/2013/10/25/news-opinion/politics/kirk-ayotte-press-pentagon-on-contractors-alleged-iran-violations

http://blogs.defensenews.com/intercepts/tag/anham/

Lawmakers Believe ANHAM Used Iran as Route to Ship Goods to Afghanistan

http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-362702/

Senators Want Probe of Contractor for Possible Iran Sanctions Violations

Two senators have requested a broad investigation of a contract awarded to a Dubai company that the lawmakers believe may have violated U.S. sanctions by using Iran as a route to ship goods to Afghanistan.

By Jay Solomon

WASHINGTON—Two U.S. senators have requested that the Pentagon’s inspector general broadly investigate a contract awarded to a Dubai company that the lawmakers believe may have violated U.S. sanctions by using Iran as a route to ship goods to Afghanistan.

Republican Sens. Mark Kirk of Illinois and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire said in a letter to the inspector general that Anham FZCO also may have conducted business with a port operator owned by Iran’s elite military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The lawmakers asked whether the Pentagon should revoke Anham’s contract to supply all food and water to American forces in Afghanistan—estimated to be worth at least $8 billion to the company—or levy a fine.

“We request that you urgently look into this matter, verify the recent public reports surrounding Anham, make recommendations on what to do with Anham’s existing U.S. government contracts and propose steps the department should take to ensure this does not happen again,” Mr. Kirk and Ms. Ayotte wrote in a letter dated Tuesday to Inspector General Jon Rymer, according to a copy viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Anham said in a statement last month that it had voluntarily notified the Pentagon’s Defense Logistics Agency and the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control that its foreign contractor had moved some supplies for Afghanistan through Iran.

Anham, which has offices in Virginia, said last month it had launched an internal investigation to assess whether it broke any U.S. sanctions laws barring trade with Iran or shipments through the country. A spokesman for the company declined to provide further comment on Wednesday.
Anham built up large warehouses inside Afghanistan in 2011 and 2012 in order to win the Pentagon contract to service American forces there with food and water, the Journal reported last month. The company, according to internal emails viewed by the Journal, moved building equipment and tractors into Afghanistan using Iranian land routes coming from the port at Bandar Abbas.
Supply routes via Pakistan weren’t available at the time because of a ban imposed by the government there in late 2011 after U.S. warplanes mistakenly attacked a Pakistani military base.

A spokeswoman for the Pentagon inspector general’s office confirmed officials had received the letter from the lawmakers, but she declined to comment about any further investigation.
Anham’s case represents the difficulties the U.S. military has faced in moving supplies to forces fighting in both Afghanistan and Iraq over the past decade. Both countries border Iran, and U.S. military personnel have acknowledged that Iran may offer the cheapest and quickest routes for moving supplies. But American sanctions ban such trade by American companies.
Mr. Kirk and Ms. Ayotte in their letter focused on Anham’s use of Iran’s Bandar Abbas port to move supplies to Afghanistan.

The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned Tidewater Middle East Co., the Iranian company that operates most of the Bandar Abbas facility, for being owned by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Treasury alleges the Iranian military unit has used Bandar Abbas to export arms. Mr. Kirk and Ms. Ayotte, citing a Treasury fact sheet on Tidewater, wrote that shipments to the firms’ facilities “provide an avenue of revenue” for the Revolutionary Guard.

Media Source: http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-362702/

 Foreign Policy Magazine reports:

E-mails by ANHAM, Pentagon contractor show 2012 exchanges about Iran shipments;

SEPTEMBER 27, 2013

Foreign Policy Magazine, one of the most credible names in international politics and global affairs,  delivers highly influential corporate, policymaker, and professional audiences in print and online. Foreign Policy and ForeignPolicy.com provide the best available analysis of pressing global challenges by the world’s leading experts, reported today:

"ANHAM, The Pentagon contractor shipping goods through Iran may have known about the illegalactivity as early as 2012. Anham, the firm with a fat Pentagon contract to provide food service and water to American forces in Afghanistan, may have known about its potentially illegal shipments through Iran as early as 2012, Situation Report has learned. The Wall Street Journal yesterday reported that Anham FZCO, which is contracted with the Pentagon to support troops in Afghanistan, had shipped some materials through a third party for a warehouse it built at Bagram Air Base there. Those shipments last year came by using Iran's Bandar Abbas seaport before being transported across Iran, the paper's Jay Solomon and Nathan Hodge reported. That allowed Anham to snag a Pentagon contract estimated at $8.1 billion, according to the paper. But shipping goods across Iran could be in violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran, and now an investigation is underway. Anham told The Journal that it only became aware of the shipping issue within the last week. Yesterday's WSJ story here.

But e-mails provided to Situation Report seem to indicate clearly that company officials were aware of the shipments through Iran as early as February of last year. In a note from a subcontractor, "Dana Tracks LLC" to corporate officials on Feb. 16, an e-mail describes the status of eight shipping containers leaving Bandar Abbas. "So far, his team in Iran hasn't got back to him on this as they are busy getting done with the procedures at the customs there," the e-mail says. "According to him, moving the containers through the new route requires lots of procedures with the shipping lines and customs."

Anham would not address specifically the apparent discrepancy between what it said to the WSJ and what the e-mail traffic among company officials seems to indicate about the timing of their awareness of the shipments through Iran. 

The Defense Logistics Agency's Michelle McCaskill's statement to Situation Report this morning: "Anham leadership notified DLA leadership Sept. 23 that it made a disclosure to the U.S. Treasury and the Commerce departments, stating that certain items may have been transshipped through Iran by a subcontractor.  We have requested additional information from Anham, as well as appropriate government agencies, to confirm that Anham's actions, including its performance under its contract with DLA, remain in accordance with applicable law and regulations."


Source: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/09/27/e_mails_by_pentagon_contractor_show_2012_exchanges_about_iran_shipments_hagel_is

Wall Street Journal TV Expose: ANHAM USES AMERICAN TAX PAYER DOLLARS TO VIOLATE IRAN SANCTIONS

http://on.aol.com/video/pentagon-contractor-shipped-goods-through-iran-517947645

Leaked Docs: ANHAM EXECS KNEW OF IRAN-SHIPMENTS: VIOLATING US SANCATIONS AGAINST IRAN

Documents show allegedly that Anham (www.anham.com), the company working under a $8 billion contract for the U.S. Department of Defense, shipped goods used to support US troops in Afghanistan through Iran over the past year in a clear and egregious violation of U.S. law prohibiting any trade or financial transactions with Iran and other countries designated as supporting terrorism. The documents include the shipment records, indicating that the materials passed through Bandar Abas, Iran on their way from Dubai to the Anham warehouse outside the U.S. military base in Bagram, Afghanistan.

Anham is a contracting company created by the principals of the Arab Supply and Trading Company ("ASTRA") of Saudi Arabia; GMS Holdings (a principal founder of Munir Sukhtian International) of Amman, Jordan; and HII-Finance Corporation of Vienna, Virginia. Anham’s CEO and Chairman US citizen Abul Huda Farouki is the owner of HII-Finance

Anham, at the time of its illegal transiting of materials through Iran, held multiple contracts with the U.S. government, including the SPV for Iraq and several USG contracts in Afghanistan. (http://www.anham.com/contracts.aspx). As the attached documents indicate, Anham used Iran as the transit country for all building materials (steel, panels, etc.) and mechanical warehouse handling equipment that could not be sourced in Afghanistan. Anham also used Iran as the transit country for trucks intended for its National Afghan Trucking contract with the U.S. Military.

Anham’s Senior VP Operations US citizen Fadi Nahas (email fadi.nahas@anham.com, Dubai cell +971505548406, Kuwait cell +96597689427) oversaw the illegal transshipments through Iran. Media sources also confirmed that Anham’s CEO and Chairman US citizen Abul Huda Farouki was involved in the decision to go through Iran.

Farouki is a co-founder of the Arab American Cultural Association. This organization came under scrutiny in 1989 when it offered to buy the rights and claimed sponsorship of the highly biased film, Young Palestinians: Days of Rage, a documentary of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Ms. Farouki’s husband, Huda, is a Chairman for the US Palestinian Partnership. The Partnership recently received a multi-million dollar contribution from George Soros, a known opponent of Israel. Samia Farouki is also on the Board of Directors of the Arab American Institute, an organization that is fiercely anti-Israeli.

Source: http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/05/21/the-9-11-graveyard-mosque-jihad-by-other-means/
 

Mr. Farouki is the founder, chairman and/or chief executive officer of several major successful corporations specializing in international finance, trade, contracting, logistics and procurement in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Southeast Asia and the Far East. Some of these corporations include Hii Finance Corp., Financial Instrumental & Investment Corporation (FIIC), ANHAM FZCO, VTEL Holdings Ltd. and Nour USA, Ltd. He has been involved in business in the United States for more than 35 years.  

Mrs. Farouki is the founder and President of HII-Finance Corporation (“HFC”), an investment company located in the Washington DC metropolitan area. Since its establishment, she has been responsible for originating and overseeing HFC’s diverse investment portfolio and leading numerous U.S. corporations in their growth across national and international markets, with a particular interest in women-owned businesses.

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